E.15:10 - Rationale

The architecture is deliberately asymmetric. The common case receives a short path because extra alternatives and records cannot improve an already understood bounded repair. The strong branch remains because architecture, ontology, and current-source decisions sometimes have several non-dominated answers.

Exact predecessor comparison and affected-reach analysis work together. The predecessor prevents history from being rewritten; actual dependency prevents an edition label from reopening everything. Independent preservation probes answer a different question from an author’s change explanation: they test what the explanation may have omitted.

Delta-Class stays useful as a compact impact signal, but only after the real change is known. E.21/E.22 own pattern quality, E.9 owns content decisions, E.19 owns review, and lifecycle patterns own publication and landing. E.15 connects these results without duplicating them.